My life has been a bunch of changes lately, accidentally moved across the country, and then accidentally bought some mice. I know I shouldn't have bought PetSmart girls, but I fell in love.

I'm not new to having mice as pets, but it's been a long time since I've had them, and this is my first time as an independent adult owning them, and the first time where I entirely understand the proper way to care for animals. (Though as far as I remember, my older girls were taken care of pretty well, but I'm sure there were mistakes... Especially since my grandmother was taking care of them most of the time.)

Anyway, one of my girls, Trouble, has developed a spin, and from what I can tell she has the "waltzing" mouse syndrome.

When I first brought them home, both girls seemed healthy. After a few weeks, Trouble developed a head tilt. We assumed it was an ear infection and took her to the vet, they gave her some medicine (sadly I forget which medication) and she was less tilty while on the meds. Somewhere during the process, the circling started... She just runs in loops a lot. After the meds, her head tilting mostly stopped, but soon after I stopped medicating her, the circling returned. It's now been a few months and she still twirls, but otherwise she seems healthy. She can eat, drink, and move around their tub just fine, grooms herself/her sister, runs on the wheel occasionally (she really loves the new flying saucer wheel they got!), and overall seems to be a happy little mouse. She's a bit slower than her sister but otherwise I don't think she's having any problems.

That said, I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can for her, and I was hoping to find more information on waltzing mice, but the Internet doesn't seem to have a whole lot out there on caring for these special guys. I did find a lot of references for a website called thefunmouse, but it appears to have closed down, which is really, really disappointing. So I was wondering if anyone knew of any other websites with good information on waltzing mice and their care, or if anyone happened to have any back-ups of the funmouse website or any of the info that was posted there. If anyone has any resources, I would really appreciate it! (And, of course, so would my girls.)

If the symptoms improved with medication, I would actually take her back to the vet. Sometimes another course of antibiotics is needed. If the vet doesn't feel it's an ear infection, they can help you explore other possibilities, such as the ones mentioned in that thread I linked.

Just wanted to add, there is absolutely nothing wrong with buying mice from PETsMART. The mice can't help that's where they ended up in this world and they deserve good homes as do all pets so don't feel bad about that. You did a good thing, you gave two mice a great home

I'll definitely look into taking her back to the vet, currently trying to find another exotics vet since the most recent trip for my roommates' rats said they were healthy, and one of their boys had to be put down less than a week after due to pneumonia, so I'm not real fond of the current vet. (Or find a way to afford the emergency vet that I do like...)

But like I said, she is doing alright now other than the twirling, so if it does turn out to be genetic, I'll still take care of her!

@Rodents rock! Haha, thank you! I would prefer not to support the poor breeding, but at the same time, I always feel like pet store critters need someone who knows what they're doing way more than well-bred animals do, so I'm torn. (As in, most people going to a breeder will know what they're doing, not that well-bred pets are less deserving of it.)

I wanted to also mention that sometimes mice can get permanent inner ear damage from having had an ear infection. I know they can get permanent head tilt... but I'm not sure if circling could be the result of that as well or if that is more indicative of a neurological disorder.

Hopefully you find a good vet to help you figure it out!

Oh and welcome to the group! The good people at The Fun Mouse passed the torch to us over here at Pet Mouse Fanciers. We weren't ready to watch the best forum fade away without preserving all the knowledge they accumulated.

@scaredymouse wrote:I wanted to also mention that sometimes mice can get permanent inner ear damage from having had an ear infection. I know they can get permanent head tilt... but I'm not sure if circling could be the result of that as well or if that is more indicative of a neurological disorder.

Hopefully you find a good vet to help you figure it out!

Oh and welcome to the group! The good people at The Fun Mouse passed the torch to us over here at Pet Mouse Fanciers. We weren't ready to watch the best forum fade away without preserving all the knowledge they accumulated.

Yeah, I think that might be the case with Trouble. But I definitely need to take her back to the vet! I just need to figure out the finances, and find a vet I can trust. If nothing else, it wouldn't hurt to get the girls checked up on.

Thanks for the welcome! I'm glad the torch was passed, it seems like there was a whole lot of experience gathered there, glad to see that The Fun Mouse didn't end up the mouse version of the library of Alexandria...! Great to be here c: